IOA to build hundreds of housing units in OJ

IOA to build hundreds of housing units in OJ

  The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has endorsed plans for the construction of 240 new housing units in occupied Jerusalem, a Hebrew press report said.

Yediot Ahronot said on Friday that the Israeli housing ministry had called for tenders to build 240 houses in Pisgat Ze’ev and Ramot in occupied Jerusalem.

It claimed that Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu had informed the American administration about the step, and that a tacit understanding was reached between the two parties over the issue.

Israeli ministers said that the step was aimed at probing the world’s reaction to the resumption of construction in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.

However, US state department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters in Washington, “We were disappointed by the announcement of new tenders in east Jerusalem yesterday. It is contrary to our efforts to resume direct negotiations between the parties.”

Meanwhile, Israeli far-right groups in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem announced that they intend to house ten Jewish families in buildings owned by Palestinian citizens, claiming that they were owned by Jews before 1948, in that suburb.

In the West Bank, Israeli settlers started to expand their settlement of Shakid on land of the Palestinian village of Yabad, Jenin district, on Friday.

Eyewitnesses reported that bulldozers were leveling the land in a bid to expand the settlement, which is north of Yabad and behind the racist, separation wall.